Today we’re going to learn about the Bombay Duck. Bombay ducks are not ducks but a variety of fish that is found mostly on the west coast of India but also in much smaller quantities on the East coast of India and in the South China Sea.

I have never found the fish fresh or frozen here in Europe. It is a very soft fish, about 25cm long, and with a single bone in the middle. The flesh is really soft and a lot a people don’t like to eat Bombay ducks in a curry but prefer them fried. For the fried version, the fish is either fileted or kept full, marinated in spices and the coated with semolina or rice flour and fried. This really crisps up the coating and gives the Bombay ducks a better texture. The flesh is very mild and hardly has any flavour or smell.

On the other hand, when we talk of the dried version of this fish, on drying the fish loses quite a lot of moisture and become hard and stinky. Legend has it that dried Bombay duck was transported in the postal (daak in Hindi) trains across the country and the stink of this fish was associated with the trains and eventually the Bombay Daak (Bombay post) became Bombay duck!

In India, Bombay duck and shrimp are the most dried seafood. Dried seafood is an important part of the diet of the people living on the Indian coasts because during the monsoon season, the sea is too rough for the fisherman to go out. Just before the monsoons, the fishermen dry Bombay ducks and other fish and seafood under the sweltering summer sun. During the monsoons, most of the fish consumed are these fish dried during the summer. Dried fish is mostly consumed roasted as is or rehydrated and made into various recipes. I cook dried fish only when I can keep the doors wide open. Somehow, like fish sauce, even though the smell of dried fish is awful, it’s tastes like heaven!!!